To obtain that information, she is employing a little-used and little-known federal regulation that requires the safety agency to consider carrying out a defect investigation.

An odd circumstance led Ms. Seetharaman to file a defect petition, when her physical therapy shuttle-bus driver, who was familiar with the petition process, saw her crying and took time to talk to her.

Ms. Seetharaman, 31, of Newton, Pa., was driving the Accord Hybrid at the time of the accident, in which she was badly injured. She was initially charged with careless operation, but the charge was later dismissed for “not meeting the burden of proof,” according to officials from the New Jersey State Police and local court.

Lalitha SeetharamanLalitha Seetharaman hopes to learn whether the brakes on her Honda Accord Hybrid contributed to the crash in which her husband, Gautam, was killed.

Now, the safety agency is considering whether to grant her defect petition, which would ask it to investigate her claim: that a loss of stopping power occurs when the Accord Hybrid’s brakes are applied on a rough or uneven surface.

In a document acknowledging her request, the agency says it is now aware of 25 consumer complaints about braking problems involving the Accord Hybrid, as well as 12 complaints about the brakes on the Honda Civic Hybrid. The complaints generally concern “inadequate” braking performance on uneven surfaces.

Hybrid vehicle brakes have been the subjects of complaints before. This year, Toyota recalled about 133,000 Toyota Priuses and 15,000 2010 Lexus HS 250h hybrids. The automaker said it needed to update the software that controls the antilock brakes, telling the safety agency that during tests, it was possible that “vehicle stopping distance may increase, relative to the customers’ expectation for a given pedal force.”

One Honda owner who filed a complaint with the agency in February regarding his 2005 Accord Hybrid cited “a delay in braking response,” which led him to almost rear-end other motorists on numerous occasions.

In response to Ms. Seetharaman’s petition, Honda recently issued a statement, saying, “It is too early to comment on any specific allegations,” while later noting that all Honda hybrids have “the same type of redundant hydraulic brake system found in every Honda automobile powered by a conventional internal combustion engine.”

Anyone can file a defect petition, but the action is rare. Last year only six were filed; in five of those cases, the agency granted the request and began a formal investigation. This year, four defect petitions have been filed, including Ms. Seetharaman’s. One of those was approved; the agency has yet to rule on two others filed about 10 months ago.

While little-known, the right to file a defect petition is an important tool for consumers, said Clarence Ditlow, the executive director of the Center for Auto Safety. “It is a Congressionally granted right. The agency often misses defects,” he said. A defect petition “allows the petitioner to get the N.H.T.S.A. to focus in on a specific defect.”

The agency must then consider the request and state its reasons for either granting it, thereby officially opening a defect investigation or declining to do so.

Ms. Seetharaman’s accident occurred on Interstate 195 in Hamilton Township, N.J. In a report she filed on the safety agency’s Web site, she said she had moved to the far left lane because a police officer had a vehicle pulled over on the right.

“When I crossed onto the rumble strip on the left of the highway, I applied the brakes and nothing happened,” she reported. “The vehicle began to accelerate wildly. I tried to bring the vehicle back under control. My husband pulled the emergency brakes. Instead of us slowing down, the vehicle went out of control. I clearly remember the last moments screaming ‘Brakes, brakes.’”

Another vehicle hit the passenger side of the Accord, killing her husband.

Ms. Seetharaman said she had talked to several lawyers but never filed a lawsuit against Honda. New Jersey has a two-year statute of limitations for product liability claims, said David Wikstrom, a partner at Javerbaum Wurgaft Hicks Kahn Wikstrom & Sinins in Springfield, N.J. Because the crash occurred five years ago, a lawsuit is no longer a possibility.

Ms. Seetharaman only filed her defect petition in early November because she had been in a coma for several months after the accident. For some time afterward, she was unable to talk, walk or write, she said. She still has difficulty speaking and walking, which is what led her to board that shuttle bus in May, as she waited to be driven to physical therapy.

“I actually had no idea as to what to do after the accident,” she wrote in an e-mail. “I was so lost, and whomever I approached just backed off when they heard my story.”

One person who did not was Ms. Seetharaman’s shuttle driver, Emerick J. Bohmer of Dublin, Pa. “I could tell she was seriously injured and she just started to cry,” he said in an interview.

Mr. Bohmer said he has worked for transportation companies for years and knew about N.H.T.S.A. defect petitions.

He told her, “There is something we can do about this.”

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